In my years as a home office entrepreneur, I had ups and downs. Periods of great productivity and professional growth, others of great disorganization and difficulty in putting all ideas into practice. The biggest challenge for who is the boss is this, right?
So, in today’s article, I decided to share with you some tips that helped me to better deal with the home office. Some you may have heard before (common sense exists for a reason…), others may be complete news for you. Come on?
I think this is the most fundamental tip. With a start and finish time you guarantee that the other tasks of the day will not interfere with your productivity and also that you will have a rest time at the end of the shift.
This rule is easier in theory than in practice. Whoever has never stopped working to hang clothes on the clothesline, let the first stone be cast! Haha ha! But it’s important that you establish periods of exclusive focus on work, even if you may need some breaks throughout the day.
Try to apply the same rules in your home that you would apply if you worked for a company. I’ve already noticed that with dedicated periods I tend to finish the day’s tasks much faster, so I can have my moments of rest at the end of the day without any charges or worries.
This is a mindset change that made a lot of difference for me when I started to professionalize my blog. I realized that the thing would never go ahead if I didn’t take it seriously, meet deadlines and really commit.
For that, I started to see myself as my employee. I swear it works! Whenever I start to lose focus and get distracted on the internet, I revert to that thought and go back to working as carefully as I would if I had a boss there by my side. After all, no boss is more important than us, right?
One of the great advantages of the home office is that you don’t have to follow business hours to the letter, especially if it doesn’t coincide with your hours of greatest inspiration and productivity.
What I recommend is that you try different times. I have already noticed that I am much more creative in the morning and am extremely dispersed in the late afternoon. The perfect workday for me starts between 7am and 8am and ends around 4pm. Of course, I can’t always hang up my boots this early, but I’m careful to leave the easier or more mechanical tasks for the end of the day.
And look, study enters at this time, ok? Reading and researching references is part of the job for me, so I reserve “prime” brain hours for those activities as well. At night, when I’m slow, all I want to know is the couch and Netflix!
Just don’t forget that if you adopt “exotic” office hours, you may have to keep an eye on your cell phone and email during conventional hours. You can’t expect the world to run on your watch!
This tip is a bit naughty, but it’s worth reinforcing: you’ll hardly have your best performance writing in your pajamas on the sofa. It may happen? He can! But ideally, you create a specific work environment.
This is even more important if you share your space with others. Sometimes it is difficult for family members to understand that working at home is also work. Putting physical limits on what is a workspace, a “do not disturb” zone, can help!
It also helps to surround yourself with things that help you work without distractions. A glass of water so you don’t have to get up, maybe a snack for later and, for love, disable social media notifications. These are the queens of distraction, and it’s hard to ignore when you don’t have bosses or peers watching what you’re doing.
We come to the most important and difficult item on this list. It’s not enough to work with focus if you’re focused on the wrong things. That’s why it’s very important that you organize your tasks and don’t be afraid to stop, rethink and adjust the plan whenever necessary.
I do this every month. In addition to helping me focus on the most important tasks, which bring me more results, this habit helps me to stay focused and motivated in my work. It’s like a constant reminder of why I’m doing all this, you know?
Going on autopilot is one of the worst things that can happen, especially for a creative professional. So I’m always measuring the impact of each content I publish, the value of each interaction and looking for new challenges and learning.
When you own your business you have the privilege of being able to decide what you are going to do, how and when. It’s not like a company employee who sometimes finds himself stuck in an activity that won’t lead anywhere. And with great power comes great responsibility.
You need to embrace this responsibility and use it as fuel for your work. This is the most powerful way for you to stay focused and do what you need to do.
Well, these were my tips, I hope they help you to develop your potential working at home office. I really think that if you can have this discipline, there is no environment more conducive to creation than your environment. It’s your rules. Enjoy.
